Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, the Labour Party (LP) candidate for governor in Lagos State, on Tuesday, received the backing of some of Peter Obi’s followers.
At a press conference held at the party secretary’s office in Ikeja GRA, the support organisations committed to helping the LP win the state.
They promised to carry out this by organising the group that handed Obi the majority of votes in Lagos State during the presidential and national assembly elections on February 25.
One of the Obi support organisations, the Independent Campaign Group for Good Government in Nigeria, led by Mr. Fortunatus Onyenka, stated that they travelled to Lagos to fully support Rhodes-Vivour and the other LP candidates.
“We are here to encourage him and gather the support that he needs to win this election on Saturday.
“We came all the way from Abuja having concluded the Presidential Election. We thought it wise to secure Lagos.
“Lagos is like the heart of Africa, not just Nigeria. Labour Party securing Lagos is like we have secured Africa. We have gathered all our support groups all over Lagos State,” Onyenka said.
He claims that there are coordinators for the organisation in each of the state’s twenty LGAs.
In addition to Pidgin, Yoruba, Hausa, and Igbo, the crew had recorded radio jingles in these four languages, he said.
“We are also doing the grassroots mobilisation just to support Rhodes-Vivour to win this election.
“From the operation we have in Lagos as members, we are sure of give LP up to a million votes,” he said.
The group’s Deputy National Leader, South West, Pastor Vincent Eleberi, and the Lagos State Coordinator, Elder Augustine Onoro, corroborated Onyenka’s claims that the machinery had been engaged to deliver big votes for Rhodes-Vivour.
Mr. Kingsley Odum, Co-Convener of Likeminds for A New Nigeria, another organisation that backs Obi, said that the group travelled to Lagos to show its support for Rhodes-Vivour because of the people’s high hopes for the young politician.
Odum said: “We need something new, we are working with the new dynamics we are having in politics.
“He is all we need because we need something new and we cannot continue the old way. We are going to do it back to back, we are not backing down, we are winning this election.
“We need Labour Party to win Lagos and we will win Lagos. I have seen it, we have done a lot security wise and we are ready.”
He predicted that the LP will win more than two million votes.
Dr. Emeka Mandela, chairman of the Nation’s LP Special Tasks Committee, welcomed the groups and praised them for their work in the recent presidential and legislative elections.
Former NRM presidential candidate and party member Mandela stated that the party’s current candidate for president, Rhodes-Vivour, needed the state of Lagos delivered to him.
“The Labour Party is going in for another round of elections on March 18 and there are some states that are very important to Labour Party and to Mr Peter Obi.
“Lagos State is the top on the list of one of those states, where Labour Party delivered a complete mandate to recover the state.
“Mr Peter Obi has made us understand that his interest in Lagos is 100 per cent. The change must start from Lagos, then it will spread to the rest of Nigeria.
“To the ‘Obidients’, the way we turned out for Peter Obi on Feb. 25, we should turn out triple times on March 18 for GRV( Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour),” he said.
In another development, Mr. Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, the Lagos State Labour Party’s gubernatorial candidate, on Tuesday, met with the Arewa Community and other ethnic groups to promise a better Lagos if he is elected.
During a meeting with representatives from many different cultures, Rhodes-Vivour vowed to establish a state that would benefit its citizens regardless of their background.
We are working towards a Lagos that is accessible to people of all language backgrounds.
“We want a Lagos that is safe for all, where education and healthcare will be standardised, and where touts, under any name, will no longer harass our people at parks and market places.
“Our number one enemy is not Yoruba versus Igbo or Hausa, it is poverty. The suffering in this Lagos is too much. We must end it and I will end it,” Rhodes-Vivour said.
He went on to say, “We want a state where everybody will benefit,” promising to carry everyone along.
